..We suggest that the extreme sensitivity of paralog-defective cell lines to cross-linking agents is owing to defects in the processing of incised cross links and the consequential failure to initiate recombinational repair at these sites...

..Thus, BRCA2 regulates both the intracellular localization and DNA binding ability of RAD51. Loss of these controls following BRCA2 inactivation may be a key event leading to genomic instability and tumorigenesis...

..These results show that the RuvAB proteins, which are induced as part of the SOS response to DNA damage, allow genetic recombination and the recombinational repair of DNA to occur in the presence of extensive lengths of heterology...

..Finally, we have used electron microscopy to visualise RadA-mediated joint molecules, the intermediates of homologous recombination. Intriguingly, RadA shares properties of both the bacterial RecA and eukaryotic Rad51 recombinases...

..In these studies, junction targeting was achieved by incorporating uncharged methyl phosphonates into the DNA backbone, providing further evidence for the importance of charge-charge repulsions in determining DNA structure...

..We propose that efficient RuvC resolution requires the translocation of Holliday junctions to specific cleavage sites, thus providing a biochemical basis for the similar genetic defects observed in ruvA, ruvB, and ruvC mutants...

Binding of inositol phosphate to DNA-PK and stimulation of double-strand break repair

L A HanakahiImperial Cancer Research Fund, South Mimms, Hertfordshire, United KingdomCell 102:721-9. 2000

..The involvement of inositol phosphate in DNA-PK-dependent NHEJ is of particular interest since the catalytic domain of DNA-PKcs is similar to that found in the phosphatidylinositol 3 (PI 3)-kinase family...

..Joint molecule formation by hRad51 was stimulated or inhibited by hRad52, dependent upon the reaction conditions. The inhibitory effect could be overcome by the presence of hRP-A or excess heterologous DNA...

Purification and characterization of the human Rad51 protein, an analogue of E. coli RecA

..In contrast to yeast Rad51 protein, human Rad51 forms filaments with single-stranded DNA in the presence of ATP/ATP gamma S. These resemble the inactive form of the RecA filament which is observed in the absence of a nucleotide cofactor...

..The role that Rad1-Rad10 plays in recombination is likely to resemble its activity in NER by acting upon partially unpaired DNA intermediates such as those formed by recombination mechanisms involving single-strand DNA annealing...

..We present a model in which BLM disrupts potentially recombinogenic molecules that arise at sites of stalled replication forks. Our results have implications for the role of BLM as an anti-recombinase in the suppression of tumorigenesis...

Distribution of the Rad51 recombinase in human and mouse spermatocytes

..Thus, the structures formed by the hexameric helicases may be a more general property of other proteins involved in DNA metabolism, including those, such as Rad52, that do not bind and hydrolyze ATP...